Aug 29, 2024 Animal Agriculture: Reversing Confinement Trends
In the early 21st century, several animal protection organizations in the United States were collectively spending approximately $6 million annually on farmed animal welfare campaigns. In contrast, the animal agriculture industry was worth over a hundred billion dollars in the country, and few advocates believed that a campaign to end the intensive confinement of farmed animals would succeed. However, taking inspiration from Henry Spira’s successful challenges against the use of laboratory animals by focusing on selected narrow animal testing targets – e.g., the Draize eye irritancy test on rabbits – and Spira’s subsequent campaigns against the face-branding of dairy cattle, a group of advocates decided to target a few intensive confinement practices. Their initial campaigns focused on the battery caging of laying hens, where each hen was confined in a space about two-thirds the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and the prolonged confinement of sows in gestation and farrowing crates where they could not even turn around.
Two other essential factors in the campaigns against intensive confinement were citizen referenda in American states, which allowed citizen participation in legislative initiatives, and the development of detailed scientific critiques. These critiques, which examined the treatment of animals in intensive confinement systems, provided crucial information and insights that empowered the advocates and the public to make informed decisions about animal welfare.
The first citizen initiative was organized in Florida in 2002, focusing on the confinement of pregnant pigs in gestation crates. This initiative received support from various national and local animal welfare organizations, who helped collect signatures from Florida residents to put the initiative on the November 2002 ballot. The initiative passed with a vote of 55% in favor of eliminating gestation crates. Florida only had two small enterprises that used gestation crates, and the agriculture industry did not heavily contest the initiative. However, the following campaign in Arizona in 2006, targeting veal calf confinement and pig gestation crates, faced strong opposition. The Campaign for Arizona Farmers and Ranchers raised over a million dollars to fight the initiative and posted large yellow and black “HOGWASH” signs along Arizona freeways. Despite this, the initiative passed with a vote of 62% in favor and 38% against. The passage of the Arizona initiative prompted several large veal producers to announce that they would abandon the veal crate system.
In the past three decades, around 50 undercover video investigations have revealed the inhumane treatment of animals in intensive confinement systems. These videos were widely shared on social media and covered by major news outlets. In response, agricultural lobbyists created and passed “Ag-Gag” bills in several states, criminalizing various aspects of undercover investigations and recording videos or photos on a farm without the owner’s consent. According to the ASPCA, as of November 2022, Ag-Gag legislation had been introduced in 18 states but did not pass. The legislation passed in ten states but was ruled unconstitutional in five. In Iowa, ag-gag legislation has had a contested history. The original ag-gag law was passed in 2012 but was ruled unconstitutional in January 2019. In March 2019, Iowa passed a revised ag-gag law, initially blocked by the courts but later ruled constitutional in 2024. Currently, ag-gag laws are in effect in 8 states in the United States.
After Arizona’s success, animal advocates set their sights on California. In 2008, a coalition of organizations launched a ballot initiative in the state that would provide pregnant pigs, veal calves and egg-laying hens more space. Thousands of volunteers stood outside stores in California, gathering signatures to support the ballot initiative. They ended up with 800,000 signatures from California residents. The initiative was endorsed by many businesses, politicians, farmers, veterinarians, and non-profits, including the Consumer Federation of America, the Sierra Club, United Farm Workers, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. It was opposed by a coalition of agriculture industry groups uniting under the banner of Californians for SAFE Food.
On November 4, 2008, Californians went to the polls where 63.5% voted in favor of Proposition 2, the farm animal initiative. There were 11 other measures on the ballot that year, but none received as many votes as Proposition 2. It won majorities in 47 of 58 counties in the state and across genders, all ages, and ethnicities. It was even favored among rural voters, including in some of the largest agricultural counties in the state. As might be expected in America, the passage of Proposition 2 led to lawsuits challenging the meaning of the wording in the initiative. As a result, animal advocates placed a new initiative, Proposition 12, on the California ballot in 2018. This initiative also passed with almost a two-thirds majority and added a further tweak – namely, animal products raised in other states but sold in California were also required to meet the conditions of the new law.
Legal challenges to Proposition 12 ended up at the US Supreme Court, where all the justices rejected the pork industry’s claim that the California law was unconstitutional. Justice Gorsuch wrote, “While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants might sell is not on that list.” In a 5-4 decision, the Court also rejected the pork industry’s second argument that the adverse effects on commerce outweighed the benefits of Proposition 12.
While the pork industry led the legal fight against Proposition 12, the egg industry began to switch to cage-free systems for laying hens. In a decade, the proportion of laying hens in cage-free accommodation in America increased from 6% to 40%. As of April 2024, almost 99% of 743 corporate pledges to switch to cage-free eggs by 2019 had been fulfilled. There were an additional 457 pledges to switch to cage-free supplies by 2023, and 73% of those had been fulfilled. The cage-free movement is taking hold worldwide. According to the Poultry Site, the introduction of automated nesting systems has been a significant recent technology stimulating the conversion to free-range or barn systems. More than half of the laying hens were in cage-free systems in Europe, the UK, and Australia by 2020, and the USA will reach that target in the next year or two.
During the campaigns against battery cages and gestation crates, the EU announced the elimination of all cage systems for farmed animals. However, farming interests pushed back against this goal and other “green” measures. Currently, the EU is no longer committed to end farmed animal caging. Still, the consumer pressure mobilized by farmed animal advocates since the beginning of the century has led to remarkable changes in intensive food animal housing and treatment in the last decade.